Downtown Visalia trolley a 'downward spiral' money pit for city

In this file photo, children fill a Visalia trolley with nonperishable food items at Annie Mitchell Elementary School.(Photo: Teresa Douglass)

Visalia's Towne Trolley service first began transporting downtown visitors in November 1998.

The fixed-route service traveled through downtown, getting shoppers and foodies from point A to point B in vintage style.

In 2017, the trolley service ended due to low ridership. The Holly Trolley, an annual holiday tradition linked to the trolley service, was also discontinued after its final run at the end of 2017.

Since then, Visalia's five shiny red and blue trolleys have sat idle and have only been available for special events, such as Stuff the Trolley.

Monday, city council members took a look at the service, discussing if it was feasible to keep the five city-funded trolleys running.

"The history of the trolleys is that everybody loves them, they're pretty, they're cute but it never translated into any type of ridership," said Angelina Soper, transit manager. "Because of that, we have really low ridership and they didn't ever financially support themselves."

The combined value of the five trolleys is $285,000, which depreciates about $40,000 each year, Soper said.

"Each year we continue to hang on them and they earn maybe $5,000, we're losing between $35,000 and $40,000 each year that we continue to hang on to them," Soper said. "Currently, there's no funding in the works to replace them or to continue the service in any way. Basically, it's a downward spiral at this point."

In this file photo, students and staff from Central Valley Christian High School participate in a “Stuff the Trolley" event.(Photo: Steve R. Fujimoto)

City administrators suggested raising the cost to lease the trolleys. Currently, the trolley rental is $65 per hour. The suggested hourly rate would increase the city-use rate to $87.50 and the non-city rate to $102.31.

The rate increase will make it so the trolleys sustain themselves until the city can sell them, which is a lengthy process, Soper told the council.

"It would take us several months if we had a willing buyer," she said. "It's not an easy sell but it is something worthwhile to do if we can use the money."

Councilman Greg Collins said it makes more sense to keep the trolleys, as the return would be about 10 percent.

"Given the fact that we're not going to get much for them, and given the fact that there are some logistics in setting up that sale, I would simply keep them. Run them from time to time and make them available to the public," he said. "I think there are some other opportunities out there that maybe staff is missing."

Collins suggested using the trolleys as a way to move employees from different business locations, such as hospital staff.

"I think there are some opportunities to utilize these vehicles to move people from the hospital to the parking lot or from the courthouse to downtown or College of the Sequoias to downtown," he added. "I don't know that we've really looked at those opportunities that move people in a simple manner."

Several council members thought selling the trolleys would be the best scenario.

"Even though it's not an easy sell, that would be my recommendation," said Councilman Phil Cox. "Let's dump these. Keep one, if we have one being rented internally by city departments, let's keep one. But I see no reason to keep five of these things on hand."

Councilman Brian Poochigian agreed.

"It doesn't make financial sense to keep these trolleys," said Councilman Brian Poochigian. "I think we need to sell them as fast as we can but keep one so we can still have it for city use if we need it."

Council voted 3-2 to sell four of the trolleys, instructing city staff to keep one for rental. Besides Collins, Vice Mayor Steve Nelsen voted no, stating he preferred to sell all five rather than keep one.

Council members also voted unanimously to increase the hourly trolley rental fee to the suggested price points.